Hey guys before i start this video make sure you vote in the upper right corner for which car you think is going to win this race also come on check us out on instagram you get lots of sneak peeks about future videos thanks this is a 1970 pontiac gto and by 1970 the gto was starting to get just a little bit crazy it was like that kid that we all knew in elementary school you know the one that whipped his ding-dong out and shaking at people and i have to say that i’ve grown up a lot since then but this car is crazy because it doesn’t
Have just that run-of-the-mill base model 400 cubic inch engine this one has a 455 and by chance would you guys like to know the specs of that 455 cubic inch engine all right you twisted my arm i’m gonna tell you 360 horsepower at 4 600 rpm and 500 pound-feet of torque at 3 100 rpm all with a compression ratio of ten a quarter to one interestingly when that engine was placed in the grand prix pontiac rated it at 370 horsepower so it seems like pontiac was trying to trick us all well it didn’t work pontiac there were a couple transmissions
Available in the 1970 pontiac gto the three-speed manual was still the standard transmission or you could upgrade to a four-speed manual or like this one you could get the three-speed automatic and like every other high performance gm of the day that automatic transmission is a turbo 400 so it will withstand all of the abuse that that 455 can put out and what do you guys think about the interior of this car it is absolutely gorgeous just like the exterior and did you notice the optional formula steering wheel oh yeah most gto’s in 1970 had a 10
Bolt rear but if you optioned for that 455 you automatically got upgraded to a 12 volt and the 70 gto had a lot of rear gear ratios available anywhere from a 307 all the way to a 433 and this car has 355 gears so that should pair up really well with that torquey engine weight isn’t exactly a strong suit for the 1970 gto this one with driver is coming in at 3 96 pounds they made just over 40 000 gtos in 1970 but if you break that down into hard top models equipped with the 455 and the automatic transmission well that’s only 1986 cars produced
And that makes this one pretty darn rare and awesome car life magazine tested one of these gto’s in april of 1970 and just like ours it was equipped with a 355 rear they ran the quarter mile in 14.8 seconds at 95.94 miles per hour and i don’t know about you guys but that seems just a little bit slow to me so i also discovered that in 1996 muscle car review also took a 1970 gto with a 455 that was 100 stock and they ran the quarter mile in 13.
5 seconds at 103.5 miles per hour and i want to jump back to that car life magazine article because they actually checked the gas mileage of a 70 gto with the 455 and it got around 11 miles per gallon but that’s really not that bad considering that the ram air 4 equipped cars were only getting around 9 miles a gallon i do have to mention one super cool option that you could get on the 1970 gto and that’s what pontiac called the humbler which was essentially a vacuum operated exhaust cutout you had a lever below the dash when you pull the lever
It’d activate the vacuum which then opened the exhaust cutout and today that’s super common a lot of cars have that but in 1970 i don’t know anybody else that was offering you that are interested the vacuum operated exhaust was a very rare option in 1970 only 233 cars had it but enough talk about this 1970 gto let’s check out its opponent this is a 1968 chevrolet chevelle super sport 396.
And 1968 was a great year for the chevelle you had a few different engine options available in the supersport cars to start the base model was the l-35 with 325 horsepower you could upgrade to the l34 with 350 horsepower or you could be like this car and get the l78 with 375 horsepower at 5600 rpm and 415 pound-feet of torque at 3600 rpm and to get that power rating the l-78 was equipped with a holley 780 cfm carburetor a winter’s aluminum intake solid lifter cam and rectangular port cylinder heads all together with a compression ratio of
Eleven to one so yeah that is one great american muscle car package you gotta admit this is one fantastically handsome bulge huh a three-speed manual was still the standard transmission in these cars and it was a heavy-duty m13 or like this one you could upgrade to a four-speed manual and just like that gto the interior of this chevelle is absolutely gorgeous in the non-super sport cars you could still get 256 rear gears in a chevelle but since this one’s a super sport you get a 12 bolt rear and 410 gears and that should get that 396 screaming
Pretty quick by 1968 the chevelle was starting to get a little heavy this car with driver is coming in at 3 916 pounds and sure it has the weight advantage over the gto but it’s only a 80 pound difference the chevelle is always known for being a great value the super sport started out at eight hundred ninety nine dollars the l78 was another two hundred thirty seven dollars and the four speed added another 184 dollars and 35 cents so at its cheapest you could get into this car for three thousand three hundred twenty dollars and thirty
Five cents which adjusting for inflation would be about twenty four thousand six hundred eighty one dollars today these cars are somewhat rare but not terribly hard to find in 1968 they made 4751 l78 equipped chevelles popular high rotting tested one of these cars in 1968 and it ran the quarter mile in 13.6 seconds at 105 miles per hour so we should have a pretty good match on our hands let’s see what they can do on the drag strip the left lane is notice those wheel covers and the chevelle wins the first round
Running a 13.37 at 105.85 miles per hour but the gto was close behind running a 13.51 at 101.13 miles per hour let’s see what happens in round two oh most people prefer the 69 to 750. the gto had some traction issues so the chevelle takes this one as well running a 13.36 at 104.63 miles per hour
And the gto ran a 13.93 at 101.15 miles per hour so the chevelle wins the best of three but let’s see if that gto can redeem itself in the final round or seven and the gto crosses the finish line first running a 13.52 at 101.47 miles per hour but he did red light so technically the win goes to the chevelle who coasted through the final part of the track to a 14.63 at 85.22 miles per hour
Thanks for checking out this drag race you guys and i’ll see you at the next one
